Syllabus for Math 600 Section 0101
Abstract Algebra I
Fall 2023

Instructor Information

• Lecturer: Patrick Brosnan
• Office: MTH 3108
• Office Hours: MWF 11:00-11:50 or by appointment
• Email: pbrosnan@umd.edu

Course Information

• Texts: Algebra: Chapter 0 by Paolo Aluffi
• Lecture: MWF 10:00-10:50 in PHY 2213

Warning

Information in this syllabus is subject to change.

Topics covered

I hope to cover the following chapters of the textbook:

• I. Set theory and categories
• II. Groups, first encounter
• III. Rings and modules
• IV. Groups, second encounter
• V. Irreducibility and factorization in integral domains

Homework

Homework will be assigned weekly and due on Wednesday's. Late homework will not be accepted but the lowest two homework grades will be dropped.

I want to encourage the class to talk about homework problems with peers. You do have to write up the solution to the problems yourself in your own words.

Occasionally, I'll post solutions to selected problems in the Files section of this Canvas page. 

You can see a list of homework here on the homework page.

Quizzes

There will be several very short quizzes in the class given at regular intervals.  The lowest quiz grade will be dropped, and I'll announce the quiz on Canvas (by putting it into the gradebook) before I give the quiz.

Exams

There will be one in-class midterm exam tentatively scheduled for:

Grades

Course grades will be computed as follows.

Classroom Etiquette

Every year, I say that I want every student to feel free to questions in class. Without student questions, even ones that might sometimes seem silly, lectures can become very dry and monotonous. So please ask questions and participate!

Interesting Links

• Galois' Oeuvres. Collection of Galois's writing (in French).
• Michael Artin's Algebra. A very nice algebra book.
• Herstein's Topics in Algebra.  The book I learned from.
• Kannan-Bachem.  Algorithms for Hermite and Smith normal forms.